Email photo as attachment, not embedded, in iOS 14

And again, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Explain it to a person who doesn’t understand what an email client is. Are you asking me to try different types of emails services? Like Yahoo, Gmail, AOL? Are you asking me to try some sort of mail service app? What are you asking me to do? I don’t know what you mean by do a functionality test by testing different email clients. Which is what I wrote above.

Yeah, and again you just posted a bunch of mumbo-jumbo that doesn’t state anything helpful. And who is the “we” you’ write about?

You’re trying to say that the email client on my phone is not doing what I want it to do and it’s not apple’s fault. You are telling me that I should test several email clients to figure this out. I don’t need to test several different email clients to figure out whether or not the email client on my phone is causing the problem. It is. And it is the one given to me by Apple. Which makes it an Apple problem.

Halliday wrote:

Welcome, terrapinny, to Apple Support Communities!

As I wrote to Lotus9999:

«Here’s the test you should perform:

Simply try any set of email clients on your received emails (that appear to have «pictures» «embedded within the body of the email»), and see which ones [email clients] allow you to vs. prevent you from, performing bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) upon said emails.

In other words, a functionality test vs. an appearance only test.

Now. What do you find?»

I could try to do that, but before doing so, I would ask you to actually read and understand the subject of this thread.

Not being able to bulk save pictures is a big pain, but if you had properly read the original title, you would have known that is simply a symptom / the side effect of the underlying problem – to which ironically, you've provided no solution.

I'll make it easy for you and paste it here: "Q: Email photo as attachment, not embedded, in iOS 14"

Hey, Lotus9999, if the issue were «merely a preference» in how the emails appear, I would have no problem with such. I have even pointed out, in times past, how that is a reasonable request to be made to Apple: provide a plain-text (text/plain) formatting option for authored emails.

However, every single time I have asked people whether the issue was purely about appearances—having no functionality component, such as bulk attachment operations—they always, ultimately, admit that the real issue is not the appearance, but the functionality component.

(You have yet to admit to such. You simply pretend to be advocating for the appearance.)

(Incidentally, while the plain-text [text/plain] formatting option might help “kick” Outlook into “doing the right thing”™️, there is, quite simply, no guarantee that such will have that desired affect. Even if it does, such will be but a fragile “workaround “, at best.)

As I have pointed out multiple times, anything besides a fix of Outlook’s misbehavior with email attachments (including the same for Outlook’s derivatives), will be a fragile “workaround”, subject to being easily broken by any tiny changes in the web of interactions involved in transferring emails.

This is, actually, how we got in the current situation.

Asking for such is simply asking for “more of the same”.

I recently received an iphone 11. I have an outlook email account I’ve used for years. Before I could email pictures to my work email and outlook account and they would be attachments at top of email. Easy to save, copy, print, etc. Now the pictures show up in the body of the email. Full screen and not easy to work with. Is there a setting I need to change to get it back to the way it sent pictures before I updated. Thanks

It's an Apple issue. Almost everyone knows this save one here. Everything worked until Apple changed the game...once again, as they love to do while controlling how you use their platform. Unfortunately, he likes to hijack the thread with dissertations on his Apple biases. Oh, well, what can you do. He hasn't yet learned to be concise when he writes so we all must pay the price. Then he asks, "did you read my reply to xxxx" as if those of us seeking a simple workaround are going to read the pages upon pages that don't answer the simple questions. I finally acquiesced just to stop the endless replies I was receiving.

His only goal is to convince you Apple does it right, Microsoft does it wrong. Blah, blah, blah. I'd recommend overlooking each of those posts if you just want to find simple solutions and workarounds.

I know, I know. I'm in the same predicament.

But until ALL OF US call Apple to complain, we are stuck with their "hole in the sand" attitude of making things more difficult. Hey, don't shoot the fool just trying to help!

I complained to the Apple support staff, and they promised to put a note in my support request record. They acted as if I were the first one complaining. Hopefully the nerds will read my request for simplicity. But we must first make it known we are dissatisfied with their gumming up the works!

Dear Halliday.

I think I speak on behalf of the people who use an iPhone and Outlook in the real world.

To quote

As a result, of all the above, there is, actually, no “fix” that is within Apple’s power or authority.

What a load of rubbish - Apple made a change, they can change it back

Like most of us on here, we don't care about the details just that it broke when we went to iOS 14. As for using another email client other that outlook - seriously are you in the real world ? Have you not seen what has become the normal ?

Sorry mate but you are on another planet and us mere users are on planet earth and don't like it when things stop working following an update. To say its not in Apples power to listen to what their customers are asking for no matter how much of a backward step it is could be considered as complacent.

Talk to the people who use the equipment in the real world rather than hide behind the technical details

Rant over - again

I’m still on Outlook Pro 2010, so I don’t think the version makes a difference. The pain is felt everywhere.

Perhaps a city government could apply more pressure and have better access to direct the complaint a few levels above a support rep on the phone.

Maybe your local Microsoft account rep with the treat of going to another product. Just saying.

Martin_Williams wrote:

Dear Halliday.

I think I speak on behalf of the people who use an iPhone and Outlook in the real world.

To quote

As a result, of all the above, there is, actually, no “fix” that is within Apple’s power or authority.

… To say its not in Apples power to listen to what their customers are asking for no matter how much of a backward step it is could be considered as complacent. …

That’s completely disingenuous and a complete misrepresentation of what I have written, and you know it!

Apple certainly has the «power to listen to what their customers are asking for no matter how much of a backward step it is». All y’all need do is provide Apple with Feedback through their provided Feedback mechanisms!

Now. This does not mean that they will actually make whatever changes such «customers» may be «asking for no matter how much of a backward step it is».

See, again:

«(In point of fact, if y’all were to “demand” that «email photo[s]» be implemented as «attachment[s]», rather than being “«embedded»”—to use the terminology of this Discussion—the response from the Apple programmers, involved, will likely be: “They are «attachment[s]». They have never been otherwise. NEXT!”)»

What Apple doesn’t have the «power» or authority to do is to perform the necessary fixes in the software that belongs to some other company.

… Talk to the people who use the equipment in the real world …

That is exactly what I and others, here on the Apple Support Community, have done.

In fact, it took us about a month or two to find the root causes of these «real world» issues.

Only after we understood that, did we share our findings with the affected community.

… rather than hide behind the technical details …

None of us have ever «hide[n] behind the technical details».

We freely share what may be needed, by those affected, for them to have a better understanding of the realities, so they can make more informed decisions on what course of action they, individually, may choose to take.

Unfortunately, as can be seen with many users’ questions, here on Apple Support Communities,, the real world answers are not always what the users may wish to hear.

… Rant over - again

No problem, except where you were «completely disingenuous and [provided] a complete misrepresentation of what I have written, and you [knew] it!»

Having the same problem here, and find it very time wasting and annoying. I just sent inquiry to customer support. I do not think there is any other way than to make them waste time on this too. Needless update change, they could have at least left a choice of how you want to deal with sending a photo.

Yes, EK-93.

Outlook to Outlook will work even if Outlook totally violated International Internet Standards governing email composition and interchange!

They are programmed the same way!

(One could ask whether such was a designed outcome: get greater proliferation of Outlook and its derivatives. 🤔)

Halliday wrote:

The trouble you are having, Lotus9999, is twofold:

There are only ever attached files, including photos/images/pictures/etc. So, there simply is no such thing1. as «embedded» such.

Hence, the only concept of «embedded» files/photos/images/pictures/etc. is purely in describing the appearance1. of the way a given email client formats/renders such.

Really? Why don't you try and forward an email in Outlook with the embedded pictures (which is obviously HTML formatted) and switch the formatting to Plain Text, and see what happens to your so-called "attached" pictures…

Oops. Double post. There's no way to delete a post it seems?

EDIT FOR MODS: It seems I have a 3rd reply now to Halliday... I got a notification that my first one was deleted by the mods – which apparently was for saying that he was incorrect – so I composed my reply differently and posted it again. But now that I scroll up, I see that my response was just modified... If possible, I would prefer that my latest response "Mar 8, 2021 1:47 PM in response to Halliday" stands.

Halliday wrote: Now. Rather than purely «look[ing]» at appearances, how about trying the functional test of saving all attachments

Lotus9999 wrote: So clearly it is NOT just an Outlook problem…

Rather than continue EXPLAINING how I – and 100 other people in this thread – are wrong in our understanding of how it really works or our perception of it, you have yet to actually come up with a solution to the original request asking this in a nutshell: "HOW can I send emails using my iPhone where the photos are not embedded in the emails, and are attachments, like how it used to be for years"?

I am at my wit's end as to how else to communicate that to you. I suppose that is because you simply do not know the answer to it...

In which case, I don't understand why you continue hammering your point, when clearly, your "solutions/explanations" are not satisfying anybody in this thread? Otherwise, why would we still be discussing it?